Urban Thinkers Line Up Against Ford’s Waterfront Plan

The view from the Port Lands. Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew_snow/5188537209/"}Andrew Snow{/a}, from the {a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/"}Torontoist Flickr Pool{/a}.

In a strongly worded open letter to Toronto city councillors, a long list of urban thinkers are condemning Rob Ford’s recent attempt to revamp long-planned development projects for the Port Lands. The letter was written by Eric Miller (director of the Cities Centre at U of T), Paul Bedford (former chief planner for Toronto), Richard Sommer (dean of U of T’s architecture school), and Richard Florida (director of the Martin Prosperity Institute). It’s been signed by 148 academics, planners, designers, and activists, and will be formally presented at a press conference at 1:30 this afternoon.

The letter calls on councillors to stand by Waterfront Toronto and their development plans, plans which emerged from years of public consultation and some of which are already underway. Signatories are not pulling their punches: “The facts concerning Waterfront Toronto’s history, performance and current plans have been misrepresented in the recent Port Lands proposal endorsed by the Mayor. The alternative vision is deeply flawed.”